Quarter-finalist, Australian Nationals (99 players)

Versions

I took this deck to a 6-2 in swiss at Australian Nationals at General Games in Melbourne. I placed 7th in swiss, and then got knocked in the Quarterfinals - the first round of the top 8.

This deck is a blast to play. I am 100% sure that this particular version has flaws all over the place but I'll do my best to explain and justify some decision making with the list.

Upgrades: obviously you want as many ambush guns as you can find. The LL-30 Blaster Pistol is the star of the list and I look for it on the mulligan over holdouts or X-8's. I included the 2 higher cost guns in an attempt to be able to dodge imperial inspection however in hindsight I would take these out in favour of F-11D Rifle because the most prevalent threat of imperial inspection also has Confiscation which works with both 2 and 3 cost weapons. The redeploy on the F-11D Rifle will also help a lot in the aggro mirror. The DH-17 Blaster Pistol are just a damn nice way to get an extra dice into the pool for mad cheapies. Then use them to overwrite with an ambush and bam, you've got money to pay for Cad's sides.

Supports: Imperial HQ. If you can make this stick turn one, do it. It is cost neutral on the turn you play it and every activation after that is bonus. Obviously against faster aggro decks you might lose initiative which is vital too, but this deck can wrestle initiative back so quickly that this shouldn't be too much of a concern.

Logistics is one of the best cards in the deck. Rolling Phasma into money on turn one basically decides games, and is the cornerstone of slow-playing turn one to set up for an explosive turn two / or even an explosive turn one, when you roll out Cad with an ambush, two money to spare and then hit two 3for1 ranged and +2 on the weapon.

Strategy: Steer away from the Cad ability at first. Try to mulligan for Logistics, then roll Phasma, Logistics into 4, play a gun (or if you have 2 LL-30 Blaster Pistols in hand - play the first and then action the second. It's tempting to lead with the action but it simply doesn't pay off (in this version of the list anyway). Save your Bait and Switch and Truce for big swing turns - using them early for a small advantage isn't nearly as beneficial as winning the game with them. Finally, generally you win the roll and unless you have the option of Moisture Farm - Tatooine or Rebel War Room - Yavin IV on the other side, take your own battlefield and just try to chomp through the shields.

This decks heavy shortcomings are the inability to deal with shields, weakness to inspection and confiscation particularly, and general heavy resource economy with few generators like Logistics.

Swiss matchups:

Round 1: eKylo(TO) eFN-2199 - Win (1-0 standing)

Round 2: eThrawn eUnkar - Win (2-0 standing)

Round 3: eVader(DA) ePhasma(RT) - Win (3-0 standing)

Round 4: eVader(DA) ePhasma(RT) - Loss (3-1 standing)

Round 5: eThrawn eUnkar - Loss (3-2 standing)

Round 6: eCad - ePhasma(RT) - Win (4-2 standing)

Round 7: eCad - ePhasma(RT) - Win (5-2 standing)

Round 8: eKylo(TO) eFN-2199 - Win (6-2 standing), 7th seed

Quarterfinals: eThrawn eUnkar - Loss (0-2)

I am so glad I managed to take this deck as far I did, and big congratulations to the winner overall (the same KyloFN that I beat in round one of swiss!) and everyone else who came to the first ever Aussie Nationals. I made a lot of new friends and got to represent the Dest Friends on the National stage and thats really what I wanted to do more than anything. Roll on and best of luck if I've inspired you to play this list!

Awesome work making the top 8! It was a very competitive field of players and you smashed it. We'll have to get some games in when I'm up north next. How did you find Tactical Mastery? Was it just to help Phasma close out the game after Cad went down?

@Han SoloTactical Mastery was actually one of my favourite cards, I missed a lot of stuff in my write up.

You can draw it late to finish out the game with phasma, or use it with a DH-17 or a 3-cost gun and some combination of overwriting to get the cad ability without ambush at a crucial time. Depending on the amount of dice you get into the pool, overwrite cad for ambush, roll in, review, play TactM with ambush to reroll the misses/mostly likely to hit, and then resolve. This works best when you've got 5 dice or an excess of resources obviously... but yeah. Its a stellar card and if they go after Phasma first then you have electroshock and cad ramp to replace the utility of this card.

We Have Them Now is one of my favourite cards. But now Im getting really creative. Another good option is Backup Muscle but you'd have to save it for the final turns of the game otherwise it's super easy way to lose the battlefield.

Very similar to my most recent build of the deck. I don't play Relby-V10 Mortar Gun and expect it's relatively weak for a 3-cost, especially compared to the die Captain Phasma's Blaster has. F-11D Rifle is definitely worth it. 4 damage sides, best total damage on a 2-cost, and the other side is which is probably the next best thing since the deck is hungry for resources and they work with Bait and Switch. I had tried Armor Plating instead of Dug in, but I think Dug in is probably the better card. You can't use it all the time, but in this game situational power seems to win over consistency most times. The other major difference is The Best Defense... vs Tactical Mastery. Hard to say one is clearly better here, they just do different things, and are both strong cards.

@Dave SharonaFast Hands is something I would consider in the future for sure, although the yellos character only errata and the occupation of an upgrade slot would limit its utility.

@Foz my reasoning with the Relby was that I ould play both it and Phasma's blaster together in a matchup where I needed to ramp hard into big upgrades. That didn't eventuate and in hindsight I would replace both with F-11D Rifle's probably.

I found The Best Defense too risky in the aggro mirror is all. But it was actually in place the electroshocks ~ Tact Mastery is essential in my opinion.

Too risky how? Are people focusing Phasma first? I'd think that's a mistake since Cad will have all the upgrades. If not, then it splits damage off their main focus which is likely to give you another turn of Cad being alive. I don't really see how it's risky, especially since Electroshock spots so it can't even be used once Cad dies.

That's totally the wrong way to look at it. That 3 damage would have already been on Cad if it wasn't on Phasma instead, which usually would have killed him sooner. So yeah Phasma has 3 damage on her when Cad dies, but Cad generally dies later as a result of not taking that 3 damage. In my use it has been common to remove 5 or 6 damage with it, so you're also removing just as much as Electroshock and putting the rest on Phasma instead of Cad. It's really so much value.

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